CarraraMarmotec 2005 Holds Its Own

CARRARA, Italy – Considering current trade-show competition and its own downward trend of attendance in recent years, CarraraMarmotec made an admirable showing in 2005 with a virtual repeat of last year’s performance.
The twenty-sixth session of the International Marble and Machinery Fair on June 1-4 drew 18,240 attendees, a 1.2-percent increase from the 2004 show. While it’s a small increase, it also reverses several years of declining audiences; the event also performed well, given the large biennial Stone+tec exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany in the preceding week.
In this year’s crowd, 4,142 came from 90 countries outside Italy, just under the 4,180 total in 2004. The attendees from North America in 2005 represented a 14.5-percent increase from last year.
The attendees saw 412 exhibitors and 544 brands represented in an exhibition space of 38,000 m² (408.028 ft²)
“It’s a really rewarding result,”commented Internazionale Marmi e Macchine (IMM) President Giancarlo Tonini, “especially if we think of the hardships the industry is going through and the similar exhibition that was held in Nuremberg just in the days before Marmotec. This 26th fair also confirms the positive signs that over the last few months have given cause for hope to our companies.
“Significant was also the increase in the number of Italian operators from the traditional quarrying areas. It shows that Carrara is a milestone for those who quarry and process stone as well as for those who design and build with stone.”
“In our opinion,” said Paris Mazzanti, IMM CEO, “CarraraMarmotec 2005 has been successful, also for the volume of sales that it has kick-started. So we can say our exhibition has played a key part in the revival of the stone industry, which has reciprocated in terms of success in Italy and all over the world.”
CarraraMarmotec 2006 is set for May 31-June 3, 2006, in Carrara, Italy.